Pittsburgh ponders school-Mac deal

Pittsburgh's Quaker Valley school district will vote tonight on a $3.1 million Mac lease agreement.

by
Macworld staff
, | 22 Jun 04

Pittsburgh's Quaker Valley school district will vote tonight to decide whether to agree a $3.1 million Mac lease agreement with Apple, a local report states.

Quaker Valley was selected as one of Pittsburgh's three digital school districts three years ago, and has been providing students with notebooks and wireless networks since.

"Tonight, the school board is scheduled to vote on a new, four-year computer lease with Apple – up to $3.1 million over four years – that would provide laptops only for students in the ninth through 12th grades to use at school and home", the report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains.

Notebooks had been provided for students in grades three till twelve during the three-year test period.

"We think the laptops at the high school have been a wonderful tool," said school board vice president Nancy Chalfant-Walker, but added that they are not required at elementary schools and related mixed feelings at middle schools.

Education officials said that elementary students didn't take their Macs home very often, and said parents worried about what Web sites their charges then visited. Middle school kids often damaged or forgot their computers, but stressed that the facility "made a noticeable difference at high school".